Airborne photovoltaic solar panels are used as the power source in some unmanned planes, such as NASA Pathfinder and QinetiQ Zephir. An idea of an airborne photovoltaic solar device, transmitting energy to the ground over a power cable was proposed by a team consisting of Aglietti, Redi, Tatnall and Markvart (Aglietti, Redi, Tatnall and Markvart, Harnessing High-Altitude Solar Power, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 24, No. 2, June 2009.) In it, solar cells are patched to a surface of an aerostat on one side, and this patch is turned toward the sun at all times. This provides an advantage in the amount of light hitting the surface of the cells compared with the ground solar installation. Nevertheless, the advantage is negated by the costs of the aerostat.
Another airborne photovoltaic solar system is discussed in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,997,532 by Tillotson. It uses a solar panel, suspended from an airborne balloon. Nevertheless, it is still not attractive economically because it requires relatively large area of solar cells, which are expensive.
Currently, solar energy is not cost competitive with fossil fuels or even with wind energy, even in the south of the US. There is need in a cost effective photovoltaic solar energy system. This invention is directed to teaching such a system.